Royal road

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The mathematician Euclid once boldly informed King Ptolemy Soter I of Egypt that there was no royal road to geometry. However, a royal road to a UK visa does exist and it has just been granted to the family of nine-year-old prodigy Shreyas Royal, by means of the intervention of the Home Secretary himself.

A vigorous campaign has been in train for most of this year to prevent the Royal family from being deported in September. This included a charitable programme of chess tuition implemented by the experienced junior coach Julian Simpole, whose former pupils included Luke McShane and David Howell. Shreyas has been invited to make the ceremonial first move in the forthcoming World Championship match set for London in November, and all who have campaigned for this happy result may now celebrate and hope that his initial promise will blossom into a successful career on the chessboard.

This week’s game was given in extract form in my column of 11 August. Here is the full story.

The rapid and blitz sections of the St Louis leg of the Chess Grand Tour resulted in victory for the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana. The puzzle shows a needle game between the winner and one of his main rivals.